Diving & Videography for a living

[nautilusvideo]

Can a diver live a comfortable life as an underwater videographer?
Is there a market out there for underwater videographers?

On Being an Underwater Cinematographer

Here are some things to keep in mind about a career in u/w cinematography.
1. You are talking about a very small slice of a very specialized pie. Take a look around and ask yourself how many shows or documentaries that are on TV are about the u/w world? Not Many. And with the fragmentation of the media into broadcast, online, cable, etc. the budgets get smaller while the quality demands grow.

2. On these u/w shows or docs how much of the show is actually underwater? At best less than 50%. The rest of the story is shot above the water.

3. Because most “u/w” shows aren’t actually underwater you need camera, lighting, audio, producing, writing and editing skills. You need to have a proficiency in at least a couple of the above skills and an understanding of all of them.

4. You must be an awesome/experienced diver and shooter. The u/w world is unforgiving and if you don’t know how to stay alive at depth AND make great pictures then you won’t do either well. These skills are earned with time not bought in a class.

5. You also need to know something about business because in the end bean counters make the decision about whether to fund you and your project. Great ideas are a dime a dozen – selling them is the real skill. In my best years only about 20% of my income has come from u/w work. The rest of my work involves shooting footage for terrestrial clients.

6. Finally, build yourself a solid skill base. There are lots of ways to get to your goal. Most of them are probably ok but there aren’t any shortcuts. Find your niche and own it.

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[muckdiver@mac.com]

See what happens when you ask for opinions? if you believe in yourself and your plans then what does another's opinion really matter? I am guessing you are smart enough to have worked this all out for yourself. Why bother asking if it is OK? I am a firm believer in following your dream having started 5 successful companies in the face of negative encouragement.

You may lose all the money you make but then you might make a name for yourself in the underwater realm. Who knows where the adventure takes you. But as they say in the lotto business if you don't play you can't win, of coarse conversely you can't lose if you don't play, but I prefer the former.

OK so now you got your advice from those that know or heard from those that know about the biz... go out and make a story of your own. It seems like you already have your mind set. The logistics are easy the hard part is ignoring the naysayers, even if one of them is yourself.

 

[ronscuba]

Muckdiver. Loved the demo reel on your site. Fantastic footage !!! What are your dive destinations for 2010 ?

 

[beautybelow]

You should put a link in your signature somewhere muckdiver.

 

[beautybelow]

I am also new at sharing my video. Actually I have only been doing video for about two years now but have a lot of time underwater with a camera. Anyway...one more recommendation on your website would be to have your video link open in a new window. Not everyone has a super duper speedo connection (it's been a long time since I have anyway) and waiting for hi def clips to load can be a pain. That way it can be minimized and the viewer can go back and browse your site while it loads.

Jon

 

[muckdiver@mac.com]

Jon,

We are back to the Philippines again on April 1st for a month, then its Lembeh for 3 weeks in August immediately followed by Komodo for 11 days then Bali at Puri Jati for a week, we return to Dumaguete for 6 weeks in December/January. It gets a bit sketchy after this until 2012 when we get to stay in Komodo again for 3 weeks + 2 more somewhere! We do 4 trips a year but something will work out for 2011 & 2012.

We like to stay in one place for extended periods. It gives me the opportunity to shoot the critters I want.

 

[muckdiver@mac.com]

Good idea, I will have to figure out how to get iWeb to do this for me. I am not a web person so it will take some investigation how to make this happen. I too have experienced the slow response and wondered what I could do. I started uploading iPhone compatible versions that are smaller and download quicker.

You can also see my videos at Mike Elliott on Vimeo and at YouTube - muckdiver2's Channel. I also have some of my videos on iTunes via Mary Lynn Price's podcast www.divefilmhd.com. All these seem to work faster than my web site does.

 

[beautybelow]

I have to dig back into iweb but it should be simple to do. On vimeo if there is a tutorial guide on settings for saving HD that work pretty well. I have to go find the link to that too though. I have them saved in my imovie and final cut. Anyway...good luck and keep up the good work.

 

[drbill]

I've tried this route for 9 years now. In my case I've proven the old saying: How do you make a million in the dive industry? Start with two million!

Of course in my case I started (and ended) with orders of magnitude less $$$.

 

[harang]

See what happens when you ask for opinions? if you believe in yourself and your plans then what does another's opinion really matter? I am guessing you are smart enough to have worked this all out for yourself. Why bother asking if it is OK? I am a firm believer in following your dream having started 5 successful companies in the face of negative encouragement.

You may lose all the money you make but then you might make a name for yourself in the underwater realm. Who knows where the adventure takes you. But as they say in the lotto business if you don't play you can't win, of coarse conversely you can't lose if you don't play, but I prefer the former.

OK so now you got your advice from those that know or heard from those that know about the biz... go out and make a story of your own. It seems like you already have your mind set. The logistics are easy the hard part is ignoring the naysayers, even if one of them is yourself.

Well...that's what I was hoping for, to get opinions. This is what this site is all about and the reason I started this thread. Why wouldn't I bother to ask if it's O.K? That's how people here gets feedback from other professionals, so they can make wise choices for themselves in the future. Being smart and somebody else having experience are two different things.


I am guessing you are smart enough to have worked this all out for yourself.
Nobody is never smart enough to make anything work by themselves without asking a few questions and with a little trial and error. It's smart to educate yourself before you make something work.

As a Engineer and self employed, I think it may be a little easy for you to accomplish this without gambling. But there are many like me that are not self employed and want to know this before they take that gamble. I prefer to say "If you don't ask questions before you play, then it's a setup to lose the game". So it's better to increase you're chances of winning, by informing yourself about the game your going to play.

So yes...that's what happens when I ask for advice, so I can make wiser choices. And Yes, it really helps to have another person's opinion from what I can gather from ScubaBoard and all it's members.

"go out and make a story of your own"
It's also hard to make a story of your own when you haven't even begun...when the time comes, I probably will.

Thanks for the rest of your advice...